Chapter 19
The time-accelerated Pocket Dimension used by Frisk looked like a natural disaster swept through it, and when Keith entered, he held back his urge to clean it all up. Moving through the mess, Keith found Frisk slumped in a swiveling chair, his gaze unfocused, and his arms hanging limply over the armrests. Frisk’s consciousness was currently inside his simulation innate gift, no doubt testing something.
Not wanting to disturb Frisk, Keith followed a foul odor to a pile of leftover meals and began to make the area a little more presentable. After filling five trash bags, he went around, occasionally using the Cleanliness Ring to eliminate the smell. Finally, he approached Frisk for one last usage of the ring.
At that moment, Frisk blinked, a sign his consciousness had returned.
“What are you doing?” Frisk jolted from his seat, surprised by Keith’s sudden appearance.
Keith deliberately held up the Cleanliness Ring on his finger and activated it to show Frisk, explaining, “You stink.”
Frisk waved his hand in annoyance. “No need to make myself nice and pretty when I never see anyone.”
“Don’t I count?” Keith grumbled.
“Meh.” Frisk scoffed. “If my parents couldn’t fix my habits, no one can. You’d best give up trying.”
Keith stared at Frisk silently to shame him into action, yet the man was like an emotionless rock. What social conventions? What grooming yourself? He didn’t give a slimeball.
In the end, Keith’s curiosity overcame his desire to reform Frisk. He asked, “What did you call me over for?”
Frisk raised a hand, and his mana started to emerge. “I unlocked Mana Manipulation.”
“Congratulations!” Keith felt happy for him.
“Yeah, well,” Frisk shook his head, “it took me months of effort and a few divine grade potions before I could acquire it. I’m certain my affinity for mana is at the bottom of the barrel.”
“At least now you can better understand it for your simulations,” Keith said, trying to keep things positive.
“Indeed,” Frisk said as he slowly formed the skill array for Fireball. He pointed at it with his other hand and asked, “Have you ever tried to activate an externalized skill array?”
“Yes,” Keith nodded, “it didn’t work. I don’t know why.”
“The same happened to me, so I made a Fireball skill array from scratch,” Frisk revealed as the externalized Fireball skill array underwent significant changes.
Without waiting for Keith to respond, Frisk angled the custom skill array to face a nearby target dummy. The mana he funneled into it underwent subtle transformations with every rune it passed, and it turned into a Fireball when it shot out the other end, where it hit the target dummy with a small bang.
“Wow!” Keith was astonished by the sight. This was a revolutionary breakthrough!
Frisk explained, “That Fireball had destructive power equivalent to a level 300 Fireball. And if I add more runes to raise the heat, concentration, speed, etc, then I can increase its power to something above level 900.”
This time, beads of sweat formed on Frisk’s face when he made further changes to the custom Fireball skill array. He then channeled mana through the array, and a blue Fireball with white around its edges shot out and blasted the training dummy to pieces.
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“What…” Keith had no words. How long would it take someone to train their Fireball skill to level 900? Frisk had circumvented the whole leveling process!
Frisk wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Fireball is one of the most common skills, and its potential is limited. I have no interest in pushing its limits. Recently, I’ve spent most of my time creating a weapon capable of killing a level 1,000. Half of its power comes from materials and half from arrays.”
Keith sucked in a breath. “Are you saying…?”
“Yes,” Frisk smiled, then sighed. “Unfortunately, I can't form the array with my current Mana Manipulation level and poor affinity.”
Keith was enlightened. “So that’s why you called me over. Okay. Let’s start!”
Frisk raised a hand and conjured a partial array. “Here is a quarter of the Laegur Beam array.”
Keith entered studying mode, curious to see Frisk’s Laegur Beam in action. At first, he tried to grasp the rune syntax of the array only to realize they involved several scientific principles he couldn’t understand—things like chemical reactions, mathematical formulas, and energy focusing. Keith couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so he focused on copying and memorizing.
After an hour, Frisk ran out of mental energy and had to take a short break. It took three breaks before Keith memorized the partial array and another ten until he remembered the whole thing.
When Keith counted the number of runes, he found that the Laegur Beam consisted of over two thousand. By comparison, the custom Fireball array Frisk made had under two hundred. In reality, the number of runes didn’t equate to capabilities; it was just a measure of difficulty. Frisk himself felt the Laegur Beam array had bloat and inefficiencies, but with his current knowledge, it was the best he could do.
Once Keith memorized the Laegur Beam array, Frisk withdrew a grey metal block several feet thick from his inventory, explaining, “This here is a divine grade material with defensive properties equivalent to a level 600 divine grade chest piece.”
Standing up, Frisk walked up to a pole, clamped the metal block to the top, then returned to Keith’s side. He said, “The Laegur Beam array should consume about 100,000 mana per shot. Go ahead.”
Keith activated Mind Division and Mind Enhancement, using four minds to conjure the Laegur Beam array. Utilizing Mana Manipulation, he funneled mana into the array, where it went through complex transformations. The array hummed and vibrated as he did, on the verge of breaking apart.
A moment later, a flash of light blinded Keith, and when his vision recovered, he saw a fist-sized hole that almost pierced through the entire metal block. Liquid metal dripped to the ground, but what drew Keith’s attention was a thin black crack connecting the array to the metal block that quickly disappeared.
“What was that?” Keith gasped, unsure.
Frisk rubbed the stubble on his chin. “The Laegur Beam was so destructive it damaged space.”
“That’s possible?” Keith’s scalp tingled.
“Seeing is believing,” Frisk replied as he approached the metal block. He examined the hole and analyzed, “Judging by the fact your average chest plate is around one to three inches thick, and the Laegur Beam nearly penetrated through three feet of divine grade metal, it's clear it surpasses a divine grade skill in power. I just don’t know if it’s reached the transcendent grade threshold. There’s not enough data to reference.”
Keith appeared next to Frisk, holding a sword conjured from Arsenal of the Desert. “I happen to have a celestial grade skill. Do you mind if I try a small test?”
Frisk looked over in surprise, though he quickly understood that Keith’s Mana Body was boosting a divine grade skill by one grade. Stepping to the side, he gestured for Keith to make his move.
Holding the summoned sword in his hand, Keith widened his stance and, in one swift motion, chopped at a corner of the metal block.
CLANG!
The sword cut through almost a foot of metal before shattering into pieces, staying true to the skill’s description that it was exceptionally brittle. Frisk examined the damage as Keith elaborated, “That sword had 70% of a celestial grade weapon’s stats.”
Frisk folded his arms, saying, “In that case, the Laegur Beam array should have power equivalent to a peak celestial grade skill.”
“Wait,” Keith suddenly remembered something. “You said that half of the power of that weapon you were working on came from the Laegur Beam array. If you included the half that came from materials, wouldn’t it have the firepower of a transcendent grade skill?”
Frisk nodded. “Sounds about right.”
Keith was amazed. While everyone was fighting monsters with their lives on the line to get stronger skills, Frisk locked himself away and used his knowledge to walk another path. Keith was overwhelmed with emotion, commenting, “You’re a genius!”
“Everyone says that,” Frisk shrugged.
Keith laughed at Frisk’s nonchalance, suddenly finding his flaws more tolerable. No wonder Yara spoiled Frisk rotten. He deserved it!